18. WATER POLLUTION: Discharges from coal plants threaten health, resources -- EPA (10/28/2009)

Patrick Reis, E&E reporter

Power plants' wastewater tainted with ash and other residue of coal combustion "have the potential to impact human health and the environment," U.S. EPA says in a new report.

Discharges include selenium, mercury and arsenic "in large quantities and at high concentrations," the report says.

Along with coal ash slurry, of major concern is wastewater from air-pollution scrubbers that remove sulfur from power plants' emissions. EPA projects that the "flue gas desulfurization" systems will become more common by 2020 to meet air standards, increasing the volume of wastewater tainted by the same heavy metals found in coal ash.

Containment ponds, among the most common treatment methods for power-plant wastewater, are ineffective in removing the metals from wastewater once metals dissolve, the report says.

Other treatment methods that chemically cleanse wastewater or eliminate discharges entirely are more effective in cleaning the metals, EPA said.

The report comes after EPA announced plans last month to revise regulations on coal ash. Momentum for new regulation has been building since a coal-combustion waste containment pond in Tennessee failed in December 2008, dumping 1 billion or so gallons of toxic sludge.

EPA declined during the Clinton and Bush administrations to classify coal ash as a hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the federal government currently allows states to set their own disposal standards.

Environmental groups are hoping the Obama administration will take action.

Craig Segall, an environmental law fellow with the Sierra Club, said EPA -- at minimum -- should tighten the rules on discharge standards and require power plants to use safe storage methods.

"The rules haven't been updated since 1982, at a time when the coal industry was arguing that their waste was about as toxic as dirt, which we now know is not true," he said. "The coal industry is an almost irredeemably dirty source of water pollution. But, given the industrywide problems, there are still ways it could improve."

Ahead of the anticipated regulations, industry groups are also stepping up pressure on the White House.

Electric Power Research Institute representatives met with Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Management and Budget officials on Oct. 16 to promote their view that a federal hazardous designation is unnecessary.

Wastewater that leaches from the containment ponds "rarely, if ever," is toxic enough to meet the standards laid out by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, EPRI said in documents presented at the meeting.

EPRI officials were unavailable for comment on the latest EPA study.